right now on andrea mitchell reports, senator majority leader harry reid is expected to speak at any moment now. president obama is back at the white house. his call to congressional leaders seem to have fallen on deaf ears. reid, predicting the country will go over the fiscal cliff and blames it on house speaker john boehner. >> the american people i don't

think understand the house of representatives is operating without the house of representatives. it's being operated with a dictatorship of the speaker. john boehner seems to care more about keeping his speakership than about keeping the nation on firm financial footing. >> boehner's office's response? we've done our part. it's the senate democrats fall. but will the speaker call his members back before time runs out? >> at the last moment is the way these things normally happen. i think that can happen again. it just depends on putting egos aside a little bit and putting the best interests of the american people first. >> plus, keeping our kids safe, is arming educators the symptom or adding to the problem. and can anyone beat sko brown? good day. we're live in washington this afternoon. the lines of communication between the president, leaders of congress are open. whether those lines are used

repeatedly over the next few days to reach a fiscal cliff deal is anybody's guess. joining me now for our daily fix, nbc's kelly o'donnell is live on capitol hill. kelly, i want to start with you. senator scott brown just tweeted out to all his followers that he was getting on a plane heading to washington. the president has apparently sent over a new deal to the senate. what can you tell us about this new fiscal cliff deal that president obama has sent over to senator leaders? >> well, the power of social media to get the word out. gop sources say in the conversation with the president, he indicated that he does have a bill he would like to bring forward to the hill today. they have not seen that. it would be a package to deal with averting the fiscal cliff. we can infer from that with what the president said before he went to the family vacation in hawaii that he wanted something that would be scaled down, not a massive grand bargain that would

protect the current tax rate for people who earned less than $250,000 a year or perhaps a different figure if they reached that. but trying to protect the middle class. so officials here haven't seen it yet, but this is kind of today's volley in what has been this ongoing battle. house speaker john boehner has been saying the president must act and it appears the president is prepared to do that with another offer. and senate democrats would presumably be right on board with that. hopefully we will get details sometime this afternoon. then we'll see where we are. there isn't much time left. as you know, there are many people who have sorted of scaled back the breathless approach to what is a fiscal cliff and are a little bit more low key about it now. obviously, there are deadlines. but if it goes into january, there is not the alarm bell kind of issue that we've seen with other scale mates unless, of course, the markets were to act on the outside. but there is kind of a change in tone after the holiday, as you've seen. >> yes. it's becoming more of a fiscal

slope as oppose to a fiscal cliff. thank you within kelly. jonathan, i want to turn to you right here. harry reid was not holding back this morning on the senate floor. i want to play what he said about the 435 members in the house. >> there's 435 members of the house. what goes on in this country shouldn't be decided by the majority. it should be decided by the whole house of representatives. the speaker just has a few days left to change his mind. but i have to be very honest, mr. president, i don't know timewise how it can happen now. >> and we just heard from kelly about this possible new deal the president has sent over regarding the fiscal cliff. harry reid, though, there's not a lot of time left. >> no, there isn't a lot of time left. what the majority leader is referring to is we've been talking about a lot, the majority of the majority real that if boehner would put aside this tradition that if he's going to get anything passed, it has to be passed bay majority of

the republican caucus. clearly there have been times on the little and in the house when boehner could have passed many bills with democratic votes. but fearing the tea party caucus that he has to deal with doesn't want to go there. and so because that can't happen and because there really isn't a lot of time, that's why you saw harry reid just pause like that because he cannot see legislatively and by the clock how they can get anything done before midnight december 31st. >> it seems to be shaping up for a possible new year's eve vote. which if that were to happen, what would the country think of our elected officials? but i want to ask that in a broad sense. you've followed politics for a long time. when you look at this from the outside and you're an average american, basically the media is saying, congress, if they don't do anything now, might as well pass something on january 3rd but in actuality they could pass today. do you think people are understanding how absurd it is?

>> no. the american people understand how absurd this is. we've been seeing poll after poll after poll showing the american people, if the country goes over the cliff, would is to blame? the republicans get the majority of the blame. speaker boehner and his plan b could not even get the republicans in his caucus to pass a tax increase on people making $1 million when we already know through november election and through subsequent public opinion polls, the american people are perfectly fine with raising taxes on people earning incomes of $250,000 and above. so the idea that the republican party can't -- i mean, i should say speaker boehner can't get his caucus in line to do something that's for the best of the country right now abdomen opposed to waiting until january 3rd, yeah, people outside of the beltway completely get it. >> jonathan, thank you so much for joining us. we appreciate it. kelly, appreciate it, too. joining me now from philadelphia, waiting on word from the speaker's office on when the house will have its

next legislatidge yigislative s allison shore, congresswoman, thanks so much for joining us. we appreciate it. >> good to be with you. >> i have to ask you, have you heard anything about this deal that scott brown tweeted about that the president has sent over to the senate? 2 smaller deal, has that been communicated to you guys yet? >> no. i'm hearing it first, you're telling me about it. i think what it shows is that the president is certainly working every day, every minute, to make sure that he does all he can to move us forward. of course, he needs partners in this. and that partner needs to be the senate with harry reid taking the leadership, but it also needs to be john boehner and the republicans. as we all mow, all the republicans are not going to be for anything that we come up with. the very right wing of the republican conference wasn't willing as you just talked about voting to even increase taxes just a little bit on people making over $1 million.

it is really not where the american people are. we need john boehner to bring us back, to really work this out. and, again, you hear the frustration in senator reid's voice about not having a partner with the republicans. we can't do this without. >> leadership from john boehner. there are enough votes in the house to get something done. he just needs to make sure that he brings up a bill for us to vote on and that's not yet happening. >> harry reid is not holding back on john boehner today at all. he said this on the senate floor, calling him a dictator. >> well, certainly as a democratic member of the house, i've watched john boehner. i've watched the republicans struggling with how they can really meet these important fiscal challenges, these deadlines, when they concede to the far right wing of the party. all along, in fact, every time we've faced a serious challenge in this country, it's been done

with house democrats putting up votes to help make sure that we continue to fund the government, that we actually pay our bills as a government, that we find a balanced approach going forward. john boehner knows the votes from some of the republicans and some of the democrats can happen. and he's been unwilling to do that. >> do you think it's good -- >> it's hurting this country. >> is it good at this point in the process for harry reid to go on the senator floor and bash speaker boehner? does that not send a message this close to the deadline? >> he's trying to make it clear and i'm trying to make it clear that john boehner can't just say i'm not in there. of course, he is a player in this. if he does not work with the senate, work with the president and, again, the president has time and time again said we have some common ground here. if the republicans do agree, and they say they do, that they do not want to see tax rates go up on the american people, well,

the president said let's make sure that we vote on that. 98% of americans can be protected from a tax increase. we can protect seniors under medicare by making sure that 30% cut to the providers don't go through. the alternative minimum tax which all of us, again, agree should not apply to 26 million americans. we agree on that. let's vote on that. let's create that certainty and move forward. let's create a path to move forward to deal with comprehensive tax policy in a fair and responsible way and let's deal with the deficit and the balance in a fair away. john boehner basically said no to all of that. and that's really not acceptable leadership. >> is there any -- should harry reid amend the bill that the house sent over at all?

the fact is, harry reid has -- needs to add republican cooperation. he wants to say, look, this isn't a game. this isn't show. you know, i can bring out a bill, pass a bill. if john boehner says i'm not going to look at that, what's the point? let's make something happen here. that is what the american people are looking for. we're concerned about the fiscal and economic policies. there's a recovery period that we're experiencing to put more challenges before the economy both consumers and investors. let's create certainty. let's make sure that we pass tax cuts for -- you know, for the majority, the advanced majority, 98%. and let's get that done and move through the regular process to deal with the bigger questions. i'd like to ask you before we go, obviously, the governorship

is up in 2014, is up for a race in pennsylvania. any interest in running against governor corbett? >> i'm right now, i'm pretty focused on what we're doing in the house and given the challenges facing us in the next several days that's my focus. we'll leave future considerations in the future. >> well, when you want to announce, come on andrea mitchell reports. >> thank you. >> next i'm joined by randy winegarten, head of the one of the neigh's largest tea party unions on putting armed guards in our school. this is andrea mitchell reports only on msnbc. any way you want. fully customize it for your trading process -- from thought to trade, on every screen. and all in real time. which makes it just like having your own trading floor, right at your fingertips. [ rodger ] at scottrade, seven dollar trades are just the start. try our easy-to-use

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in the wake of the connecticut school tragedy, the nra is calling for armed guards

at every school. it's a policy the mayor of new jersey put in place and his defended his decision earlier today with thomas roberts. >> i think we have to close the loopholes on gun control. ta being said, our students need to be safe where they learned. what newtown showed us is existing security is not safe. the only way to protect our students right now is to have a police officer present in the school. >> but not everyone is on board with the nra's plan to make schools safer. joining me now is randy winegarten, the head of the american federation of teachers. thank you so much for joining us. >> it's my pleasure. >> we did d some research and the national school safety center says about 25% of schools with armed guards, when i go to a college football game, i often see numerous officers have weapons. in case of issues. why should that same protection that's at a college football game not be afforded to every single child that goes to public

school in america? >> so, you know, let me -- i don't want to be cynical about this. but what we really need is actually less guns in schools, not more guns in schools. before i was aft president, i was president of the new york city teachers local and we have had police officers in schools and we have had metal detectors in schools. but police officers or armed guards did not stop the shooting in virginia tech. it did not stop the shooting in columbine. and what we're talking about here, if you actually take the nra's proposal to its logical conclusion, if we want to really protect all kids, we need to actually put an armed guard in every wing. maybe in front of every classroom. and that's why we've said that schools should be safe sanctuaries, not armed fortresses. are there some schools that need to have armed police officers? of course. but the nra's proposal is to put

more guns in schools, not less guns in schools and to actually -- to actually make schools into armed fortresses as opposed to the safe sanctuaries to the learning conditions. >> mr. lapierre said though signs that say gun free zone around schools invite criminals to come on to schools. what's your response to that? >> you know something? we have had 34,000 children who have been harmed in gun incidents all throughout the country every single year. there's over 5,000 kids who have been killed by armed -- or by gun incidents. there is a time and place in this country where we need to deal with gun violence. so is mr. la pierre saying throughout the country he's going to blame sanctuaries for all the gun violence in the united states of america when we don't see that gun violence in

other countries in the world in places like australia, great britain, other places who have been able to stem it? enough is enough. we need to have sensible gun -- sensible gun control legislation. we can find ways to harm nice it with the second amendment which i believe in. we can do this, but we have to act now. >> as you know, when there are negotiations between the teachers unions and state governments and during budget crises, oftentimes the first things that get cut when it comes to public education are school psychologists, are people that that type of mental health, the folks associated with that and how it relates to children. would you be willing, as head of the union that in the future if a governor said, hey, look, maybe roll back some of your pensions, maybe less tenure and increase mental health funding for schools and for kids, would you be open to that? >> well, look, i would be open to actually putting back mental health professionals in schools in terms of making sure that the

whole child got everything that that child should get. at the end of the day, when you're talking about pengs, the basic pension in the united states of america for public employees is about $24,000. they pretty much need that to live. they have earned it. but the bottom line is, you're totally right. we should not be pitting mental health services, we should not be pitting really important service that's kids need. they need great teachers and they need mental health services and we need to make sure that we keep guns out of school. and frankly, we should be doing all of those kinds of things. we want to do things that to make sure that tenure is earned and it is simply about due process. of course. but let's not pit what kids need against each other. >> brandie winegartner, we thank you so much for joining us. >> thank you. >> breaking with boehner, after the failure of a plan b, is the speaker going to go to the floor without a majority of the

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with the country teetering on the edge of the fiscal cliff, many members of the house aren't even in washington. they're waiting on a call from john boehner to proceed to action. the house leadership is calling on the republican leadership to come to work and stop stonewalling every effort to get the job done, including that taxes are not raced on tens of millions of middle class families. the house does come babb, it's an open question as to whether or not john boehner has the power to muster up the votes. with me now, jonathan allen, senior washington correspondent for politoco. he recently wrote about the pushback congressman boehner is getting from those that had their committee assignments stripped. >> hello. i'm doing well. >> we just heard over the break

that harry reid is denying this scott brown tweet and the president is moving forward on a new plan. the gop says there's a new plan moving forward on the fiscal cliff. harry reid says there's not. seems to me more of the same ping-pong we've had over the last few days. >> were no closer to steering away from the cliff. we are much closer to the cliff. the president made a round of calls last night to talk to congressional leaders about the need to get something done. no one has that produced in the form of a bill. senate majority leader mitch mcconnell is saying this is the first contact he's had from a democrat since thanksgiving. you need unanimous continue sent for a lot of things to happen. >> and we're now hearing that the white house is denying there's a new plan from the president. so the white house and harry reid are both denying scott brown and gopas about this new

physical cliff plan which puts us back to square one. you tackled this issue of john boehner's control over his conference. in a really interesting way. you basically said he's a substitute teacher in the sense that even when he disciplines folks like holtzcamp who were insubordinate and ripped them of committee assignments, the whole episode gave boehner the feel of a substitute teacher who is accountable for what happened in the classroom but isn't really in control of the kids. so these guys deny him and yet he doesn't have control of them at the end. >> it's a handful of guys, maybe as many as 20, 30, something like that who basically are completely uncontrollable for boehner. it is a large enough number that he can't put something on the floor and expect he's going to get a majority within the republican conference. so i liken it to a substitute teacher. these guys get sent to the corner. three of them have their committee assignments pulled. a fourth also. they get their committee assignments pulled as punishment

for the way they behave in congress and all of a sudden they're hitting him with paper airplanes from the corner. they were tweeting about how they were opposing his plan b. there was a statement that came out from tim huelskamp saying the republican leadership wasn't in control. he has a lot of difficulty leading this group. it's really a matter of on him trying to find the consensus and moving that forward rather than setting an agenda. >> 20 guys who would not budge under any circumstances. it's remarkable. boehner seems to abide by it. i've talked to gop aides. do you think now in just these few days before the deadline, boehner, if there were to deal a deal would say, all right, i mitt go with something ta gets 40, 50, 60 gop members? >> i think the signal from boehner in saying the ball is is in the senate's court is in the senate passes something, if mitch mcconnell and the republicans, enough of them

agree to get something passed to send it over to the house, he will be in a bad position to not bring it to the floor. he likely will bring it to the floor. and we saw this with the democrats sometimes. nancy pelosi bringing war funding bills to the house floor during the bush administration. not because she loved the idea of continuing the wars in afghanistan and iraq but because she saw that was a priority that needed to move whether or not it was going to have a lot of democratic votes. >> amazing. you think of all those things in the senate. the farm bill had enough republican support over there. never brought up in the house. it's a tough thing to do for john boehner. john allen, thank you so much for joining us. looking forward to the book about hillary and concussion-dpat. it will be interesting. next, as a new senator gets swarn in today, the fight from john kerry is reading up.

topping the headlines on andrea mitchell reports, former president george h.w. bush has been moved to the intensive care unit of a houston hospital where he's been battling a cough since november. the 88-year-old was moved to the icu recently after a foout few setbacks including a persistent fever. doctors are optimistic. another member of president obama's administration is stepping down. lisa jackson, head of the veermtal protection agency. jackson answers tenure includes mat matches. they've praised the effort with families close. the late senator daniel inouye's successor will be sworn in today. hawaii's lieutenant governor flew to washington with president obama earlier today. he was chosen for the position by neal abercrombie despite inouye's choice that colleen

take his seat. he's just 40 years old. and russian president vladimir putin says he will sign a law banning adoptions of russian children by american citizens. putin has indicated he is, quote, retaliating against an american law that punishes russians accused of human rights violations. the state department says it is deeply troubled by provisions in the russian bill. if senate seats could be won by persistence alone, scott brown might just take the prize. he lost in a marathon of a battle against elizabeth warren just last month. now, scott brown may be gearing up for his third election in just as many years, something that he alluded to in his senate farewell speech. >> victory in defeat is temporary. you know, depending on what happens and where we go, all of us, we may obviously meet again.

>> joining me now s boston globe's cynthia needham. what a great last name for someone in massachusetts. thanks so much. we appreciate it. >> thanks, luke. >> a question off the bat i have to ask you, it seems that the folks who would possibly run against scott brown in this special is are some of the folks we heard about before in 2010. mike capuano, these guys who have been around the block a lot in massachusetts politics. folks that are often the target of guys like howie carr. can any of these guys muster a real fight against scott brown? >> that's a good question. i mean, you're hearing their names a lot. they are popular politicians in massachusetts. but their districts are small. and certainly scott brown remains one of the most popular politicians in the state. these guys are well liked. but whether they have what it takes to beat him is a little bit unclear.

ed markey in particular has a good chunk of change in his account which will certainly help. we have the massachusetts democratic machine on their side. but that's the big question. >> let's talk about that machine. because what we hear now from the massachusetts democrats, and they said it on twitter, bring it on. after this kerry employment second of state was brought on. they feel confident. they say we have a voter registration advantage. we're not going to get caught on the blind side like in 2010. but scott brown has a high approval rating in the state. can the massachusetts democratic machine turn out a marquis or lynch victory over scott brown inspect are they strong enough to do that? >> no question about it, they need to find somebody. one of the reasons elizabeth warren did so well is because people were passionate about her. 2 machine only comes out if people are really truly excited about a candidate. and they were about warren from

the get-go. if they don't feel that way, especially in the special election when voter turnout is going to be low, anyway, it's going to be scott brown's to lose. >> and lastly, i'll just ask you, what is the level of disappointment that ben affleck is not going to run in the state of massachusetts or the commonwealth of massachusetts? >> i knew that one was coming. well, hey, you know, we were all surprised. we either heard jones that he was going to run and suddenly people were taking it seriously and he posted on his facebook page a rather serious posting that said, you know, i'm not going to do it but i'm ownered and thank you. i think there's a little bit of disappointment. certainly he would have had that star quality. but we'll move on to the next guy. >> yeah. i think that would have probably been the two best looking guys in the history to run against each other. thank you so much for joining us. >> thanks. >> the dysfunction of this honor may very well carry over in the 113th session with few signs

that either democratic or republican leaders can strike a basic bargaining agreement, let alone a grand bargain. former congressman martin frost 06 texas and david winston, former gingrich campaign adviser, he was auto member of the speaker's office. two men that know how to cut a deal, know the battles that are being fought and weighed. i have to ask both of you off the top, i'll start with you, mr. frost, because year here. are you surprised by the lack of urgency regarding the fiscal cliff, that mitch mcconnell saying i haven't heard from democrats since thanksgiving, that president obama is not even calling up the speaker, speaker boehner is not calling up president obama wishing him a merry christmas. are you surprised about the lack of urgency on this issue? >> the answer is yes, but the politics are so difficult. i think what everybody ought to look like right now is what is going to happen on january 4th. that's the day after people are sworn in. if they don't make a deal, is this leadership going to tell members of congress, you can't leave down? are they going to cancel

airplanes, not let them go to trade shows in las vegas, that's a very interesting question because normally members take off between the swearing in date of the 3rd and the inauguration on the 20th, this we're the 21st. yeah. i'm surprised. i don't ever recall anything like this. when i was in congress, people in leadership in both parties always had a rabbit in the hat. there doesn't appear to be any rabbit in the hat this time. >> mr. winston, i'll ask you, as someone who is close with speaker gingrich and who mr. gingrich had some folks not too fond of him within his own conference. do you think john boehner has been held hostage by 20 or so members that will come out against him heavily if he backed anything that looked like a tax increase? >> first up, this is an unusual situation. we have a situation where you've got, you know, looming tax increases, obviously the significant cut to defense and now you've got geithner describing where the debt ceiling is about to come into

play december 31st. so you've got a pressurized situation that quite frankly is going to require some time to think through. so, you know, inge everybody is engaged here. but the problems are pretty significant. going back to this, remember when the speaker did that vote, he got over 90% of his conference behind him. the dynamic that exited here was that the democrats said we're going to make this a party line vote. if you can get it over the finish line with just republican votes, great. but you're not going to have any of ours. i think that goes to the dysfunctional nature of what we're dealing with and the amount of votes that are simply party line votes. >> i want to ask you, newt gingrich and bill clint job could not have been more different, yet they seemed to have a sort of common idea that they should come together to move the country forward. why do you think that's lacking so much between john boehner and president obama right now? >> well, again, they got very close in august of 2011 to get ago deal. and i think there's still some elements of that that can be

reached. but look, i'm going to tell you, when you have harry reid making the comments that he did this morning and creating a poisoned atmosphere, those are the sort of things that slow down these sort of critical negotiations. i think, yes, the president and speaker boehner can get to an agreement, but they both need help from their respective parties and from their respective coleader, the opposite leaders in terms of making this work. and, again, what harry reid said today was not helpful to this entire process at all. >> speaker boehner, dictator -- >> i was in congress in 1995 and you remember gingrich only came to the table after he was embarrassed, after we went through this business of closing down the government, everybody said this was a terrible thing, you made a mistake. then he came to the table and worked things out with clinton. let's see what happens here. this is a different situation. it's much more serious in terms of the fiscal cliff. that was just a -- we couldn't pass a continuing resolution to

the government employees had to stay home for a while. but gingrich didn't willingly come to the table. boehner has been embarrassed. he could not get the vote of his own caucus, of his own conference to pass a benign piece of legislation, a piece of legislation that protected everybody up to a million dollars. i don't know how you get more embarrassed than that. now, i hope that these guys can get together, these men and women can get together and do something before january 1st. but i'd check those airplane logs if i were you. if they're really serious, they're going to say you're going to get the final word. >> and i'm creating this dynamic of making it difficult. john boehner was not embarrassed. the house works its will.

to try to put it ins terms of being embarrassed, misses the whole point. >> and i remember that well because i had a school feed trip to the national zoo that was canceled because the government shut down. so you've robbed your young kids of access. thanks so much for coming on the program. we appreciate it. >> thank you. up next, capital cliffhanger. behind the scenes in the fiscal cliff negotiations and now what it takes to get a deal done. c! get in the game! [ male announcer ] don't have the hops for hoops with your buddies? lost your appetite for romance? and your mood is on its way down. you might not just be getting older. you might have a treatable condition called low testosterone or low t. millions of men, forty-five or older, may have low t. so talk to your doctor about low t. hey, michael! [ male announcer ] and step out of the shadows. hi! how are you? [ male announcer ] learn more at isitlowt.com. [ laughs ] hey!

developing now, we just got an emphatic denial from the white house about that rumored proposal being sent to the hill by president obama to senate republicans to avert the fiscal cliff. and nbc's white house correspondent peter alexander joins me now. republicans saying, oh, the president is having a deal. the president is saying no.

harry reid is saying no. what do we know? >> i guess we know very little. we know this isn't going to be litigated in the mead ra. but the white house wants to make it very clear that there is no new proposal on the way to its hill today despite the comments from senator scott brown and others today, a senior administration telling me a short time ago, and i quote, there is no proposal being sent up today. i think that does it pretty emphatically. that was the language that came from harry reid just a short time ago. the president is here. we have reached out to aides, as well. they say they have no information that he will be speaking publicly today. we also know as you see him arriving only a matter of hours ago that the vice president, joe biden, has been meeting in the white house, as well. but at this point, that's where things stand with barely 100 hours until we reach this deadline. luke? >> absolutely unbelievable. at least bo obama came back with

the president there. thanks so much for being on the show. we appreciate it. we're five days away and john boehner has released the house telling the senate it's up to them to come up with a deal that his chamber will pass. paul contain, chris frazier, they both join me now. paul, i want to start with you. one thing that we all seem to be hearing is that -- and the markets start to tank, it will spur these guys to figure out some sort of deal. >> dow jones had a three-month chart that showed where the dow has been. we see there, went down, up, now it's steadily going down towards since plan b failed. do you think that's the only hope of getting a deal. >> it's not the only hope, but it has been sort of a missing actor for the last five or six week. that when it started going back up the market, that basically cued off a white house meeting that president obama has with big congressional leaders. they came out and talked a lot

about optimism. from that moment on, the dow went up 800, 850 points. a slow, steady climb until early last week when speaker boehner backed utah of the bipartisan talks, goes to plan b and it blows up. now you can see, we're down about 350, 360 points since plan b got introduced. the markets are now starting to believe that we might not get a deal at all, at least into next year. >> chris, what is all this nonsense surrounding a proposal of the white house allegedly sent to senate republicans and now they're denying. do you think anything about that? and are we slated to be in on new year's eve? >> i have talked to some senate dems right before i came down and they told me that they had not been told about the white house at all about any plan coming up and it looks like the sources there on that report may have been a little bit confused. about but i think what we're watching, luke, is a slow motion car wreck. i think we're going through the

motions here and there is no real belief among the legislative leaders that i talked to that a deal is imminent, that a deal could even get down with the time frame that's left. and while i think many of us will be here on new year's eve bringing in 2013, i am not sure that there will be a deal that is born with the new year. >> i want to get both of you guys on this because, paul, you wrote this morning in the washington post that when you look at boehner and obama's proposal, they're essentially $450 billion away. that's less than 1% of the federal spending going forward for the next ten years. have you ever seen a deal that's that close that could essentially give both sides a lot of what they want fall apart over that small amount of money? >> it's been -- it has been very confounding to a lot of us because, you know, you break it down over ten years, there's $45 billion apart year by year on taxes. they would tell you, each side

would say that these are policy issues that they can't bridge the gap on in terms of how much they raise tax rates on those income above 250 or 400 of a million and that's those are really big, substantial gaps. and republicans want more on entitlement reform, particularly on medicare. this is sort of the red line that each side has drawn the. and the overall number is really close. those policies difference res still key and they can't get past them right now. >> and, chris, i'll turn to you. obviously, that number is unbelievable how small it is, the difference. but in terms of moving forward from your sourcing, does it seem to be that we're going to go over the cliff now with the possibility that we would pass to 650 or 250 orth? well, i think right now all sides are playing a pr game and look at when's happening right now with harry reid on the floor, with the statement that

house republicans made yesterday, this is all a kind of blame game situation which indicates to everybody i'm talking to there isn't a lot of good sense that we'll get there and the other thing to remember, luke, and you know this, that when you bring a new congress back, a couple hundred new members. there's logistically challenges. none of the bills alive right now are usable anymore. they all die when the congress ends so think need to reintroduce legislation so i'm hearing that even if we do go over the cliff, it's not the 3rd or the 4th but in to mid-january by the time they get organized, they get some legislation moving that could even be a vehicle for a deal. so it looks like if we do go over the cliff we may end up in mid-january sometime. >> simply remarkable. chris, we thank you so much. paul, here in the house, appreciate it. won't hold you against you that you're a philadelphia fan.

>> so's chris. what political story makes head lines in the next 24 hours? that's next. oil or cream? cream. ♪ [ male announcer ] the sound of reddi-wip is the sound of joy. [ male announcer ] you've reached the age where you don't back down from a challenge. this is the age of knowing how to make things happen. so, why let erectile dysfunction

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which political story will make head lines in the next 24 hours? jonathan capehart is back with us. not hard question, jonathan. >> yes. >> where do we go on the cliff? i think today, tomorrow, saturday, sunday, monday. could be all the way to tuesday. >> right. we are going to be talking about fiscal cliff. where are we? where are we going? what things can we believe that are coming out from capitol hill? what qunt we believe? >> today, we have the fake plan apparently senate republicans had and white house denying. this is -- ugh. interesting. >> what about the white house supposedly sending its own boiled down fiscal cliff bill to the hill? what's going on with that? you've got harry reid's incendiary comments on the floor today. >> it feels like we're at the beginning of the beginning of the end. >> right.

i'll be back tomorrow to talk about it. >> jonathan capehart, thanks so much. that does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." craig melvin has a look at what's next. the pride of south carolina. craig, how are you doing, snir. >> good to see you as always. five days to go until the fiscal cliff deadline. john boehner holding a press conference. what might they be talking about? president obama returned to washington today after speaking with all four congressional leaders yesterday. we'll have a live update from the white house and from capitol hill. plus, congresswoman bass and congressman pascrell join me live and the decision to sign a controversial bill that bans americans from adopting russian children. details on that straight ahead on "news nation." because your daughter really wants that pink castle thing. and you really don't want to pay more than you have to. only citi price rewind

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